MALCHION

I.--THE EPISTLE WRITTEN BY MALCHION, IN NAME OF THE SYNOD OF ANTIOCH,
AGAINST PAUL OF SAMOSATA.(1)

To Dionysius and Maximus, and to all our fellows in the ministry throughout
the world, both bishops and presbyters and deacons, and to the whole Catholic
Church under heaven, Helenus and Hymenaeus and Theophilus and Theotecnus
and Maximus, Proclus, Nicomas, and Aelianus, and Paul and Bolanus and Protogenes
and Hierax and Eutychius and Theodorus and Malchion and Lucius, and all
the others who are with us, dwelling in the neighbouring cities and nations,
both bishops and presbyters and deacons, together with the churches of
God, send greeting to our brethren beloved in the Lord.

1. After some few introductory words, they proceed thus:--We wrote to
many of the bishops, even those who live at a distance, and exhorted them
to give their help in relieving us from this deadly doctrine; among these,
we addressed, for instance, Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandria, and Firmilian
of Cappadocia, those men of blessed name. Of these, the one wrote to Antioch
without even deigning to honour the leader in this error by addressing
him; nor did he write to him in his own name, but to the whole district?
of which letter we have also subjoined a copy. And Firmilian, who came
twice in person, condemned the innovations in doctrine, as we who were
present know and bear witness, and as many others know as well as we. But
when he (Paul) promised to give up these opinions, he believed him; and
hoping that, without any reproach to the Word, the matter would be rightly
settled, he postponed his decision; in which action, however, he was deceived
by that denier of his God and Lord, and betrayer of the faith which he
formerly held. And now Firmilian was minded to cross to Antioch; and he
came as far as Tarsus, as having already made trial of the man's infidel(3)
iniquity. But when we had just assembled, and were calling for him and
waiting for his arrival, his end came upon him.

2. After other matters again, they tell us in the following terms of what
manner of life he was:--But there is no need of judging his actions when
he was outside (the Church), when he revolted from the faith and turned
aside to spurious and illegitimate doctrines. Nor need we say any thing
of such matters as this, that, whereas he was formerly poor and beggarly,
having neither inherited a single possession from his fathers, nor acquired
any property by art or by any trade, he has now come to have excessive
wealth by his deeds of iniquity and sacrilege, and by those means by which
he despoils and concusses the brethren, casting the injured unfairly in
their suit,(4) and promising to help them for a price, yet deceiving them
all the while and to their loss, taking advantage of the readiness of those
in difficulties to give in order to get deliverance from what troubled
them, and thus supposing that gain is godliness.(5) Neither need I say
any thing about his pride and the haughtiness with which he assumed worldly
dignities, and his wishing to be styled procurator(6) rather than bishop,
and his strutting through the market-places, and reading letters and reciting
them(7) as he walked in public, and his being escorted by multitudes of
people going before him and following him; so that he brought ill-will
and hatred on the faith by his haughty demeanour and by the arrogance of
his heart. Nor shall I say any thing of the quackery which he practises
in the ecclesiastical assemblies, in the way of courting popularity and
making a great parade, and astounding by such arts the minds of the less
sophisticated; nor of his setting up for himself a lofty tribunal and throne,
so unlike a disciple of Christ; nor of his having a secretum(1) and calling
it by that name, after the manner of the rulers of this world; nor of his
striking his thigh with his hand and beating the tribunal with his feet;
nor of his censuring and insulting those who did not applaud him nor shake
their handkerchiefs,(2) as is done in the theatres, nor bawl out and leap
about after the manner of his partisans, both male and female, who were
such disorderly listeners to him, but chose to hear reverently and modestly
as in the house of God; nor of his unseemly and violent attacks in the
congregation upon the expounders of the Word who have already departed
this life, and his magnifying of himself, not like a bishop, but like a
sophist and juggler; nor of his putting a stop to the psalms sung in honour
of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the recent compositions of recent men, and
preparing women to sing psalms in honour of himself in the midst of the
Church. in the great day of the Paschal festival, which choristers one
might shudder to hear. And besides, he acted on those bishops and presbyters,
who fawned upon him in the neighbouring districts and cities, to advance
the like opinions in their discourses to their people.

3. For we may say, to anticipate a little what we intend to write below,
that he does not wish to acknowledge that the Son of God came down from
heaven. And this is a statement which shall not be made to depend on simple
assertion; for it is proved abundantly by those memoranda which we sent
you, and not least by that passage in which he says that Jesus Christ is
from below. And they who sing his praise and eulogise him among the people,
declare that their impious teacher has come down as an angel from heaven.
And such utterances the haughty man does not check, but is present even
when they are made. And then again there are these women--these adopted
sisters,(3) as the people of Antioch call them--who are kept by him and
by the presbyters and deacons with him, whose incurable sins in this and
other matters, though he is cognisant of them, and has convicted them,
he connives at concealing, with the view of keeping the men subservient
to himself, and preventing them, by fear for their own position, from daring
to accuse him in the matter of his impious words and deeds. Besides this,
he has made his followers rich, and for that he is loved and admired by
those who set their hearts on these things. But why should we write of
these things? For, beloved, we know that the bishop and all the clergy(4)
ought to be an example in all good works to the people. Nor are we ignorant
of the fact that many have fallen away through introducing these women
into their houses, while others have fallen under suspicion. So that, even
although one should admit that he has been doing nothing disgrace fill
in this matter, yet he ought at least to have avoided the suspicion that
springs out of such a course of conduct. lest perchance some might be offended,
or find inducement to imitate him. For how, then, should any one censure
another, or warn him to beware of yielding to greater familiarity with
a woman, lest perchance he might slip, as it is written:(5) if, although
he has dismissed one, he has still retained two with him, and these in
the bloom of their youth, and of fair countenance; and if when he goes
away he takes them with him; and all this, too, while he indulges in luxury
and surfeiting?

4. And on account of these things all are groaning and lamenting with
themselves; yet they have such a dread of his tyranny and power that they
cannot venture on accusing him. And of these things, as we have said already,
one might take account in the case of a man who held Catholic sentiments
and belonged to our own number; but as to one who has betrayed(6) the mystery
(of the faith), and who swaggers(7) with the abominable heresy of Artemas,--for
why should we hesitate to disclose his father?--we consider it unnecessary
to exact of him an account for these things.

5. Then at the close of the epistle they add the following words:--We
have been compelled, therefore, to excommunicate this man, who thus opposeth
God Himself, and refuses submission, and to appoint in his place another
bishop for the Church Catholic, and that, as we trust, by the providence
of God--namely, the son of Demetrianus, a man of blessed memory, and one
who presided over the same Church with distinction in former times, Domnus
by name, a man endowed with all the noble qualities which become a bishop.
And this fact we have communicated to you in order that ye may write him,
and receive letters of communion(1) from him. And that other may write
to Artemas, if it please him; and those who think with Artemas may hold
communion with him, if they are so minded.

II.--FRAGMENTS APPARENTLY OF THE SAME EPISTLE OF THE SYNOD OF ANTIOCH;
TO WIT, OF THAT PART OF IT WHICH IT IS AGREED THAT EUSEBIUS LEFT UNNOTICED.(1)

He says, therefore, in the commentaries (they speak of Paul), that he
maintains the dignity of wisdom.

And thereafter:

If, however, he had been united(2) according to formation and generation,
this is what befalls the man. And again: For that wisdom, as we believe,
was not congenerate(3) with humanity substantially, but qualitatively.(4)

And thereafter:

In what respect, moreover, does he mean to allege that the formation(5)
of Christ is different and diverse from ours, when we hold that, in this
one thing of prime consequence, His constitution differs from ours, to
wit, that what in us is the interior man, is in Him the Word.(6)

And thereafter:

If he means to allege that Wisdom dwells in Him as in no other, this expresses
indeed the same mode of inhabitation, though it makes it excel in respect
of measure and multitude; He being supposed to derive a superior knowledge
from the Wisdom, say for example, twice as large as others, or any other
number of times as large; or, again, it may be less than twice as large
a knowledge as others have. This, however, the catholic and ecclesiastical
canons disallow, and hold rather that other men indeed received of Wisdom
as an inspiration from without, which, though with them, is distinct from
them;(7) but that Wisdom in verity came of itself substantially into His
body by Mary.

And after other matters:

And they hold that there are not two Sons. But if Jesus Christ is the
Son of God, and if Wisdom also is the Son of God; and if the Wisdom is
one thing and Jesus Christ another, there are two Sons.

And thereafter:

Moreover understand (Paul would say) the union with Wisdom in a different
sense, namely as being one according to instruction and participation;(8)
but not as if it were formed according to the substance in the body.

And after other matters:

Neither was the God who bore the human body and had assumed it, without
knowledge(9) of human affections(10) in the first instance; (11) nor was
the human body without knowledge, in the first instance, of divine operations
in him in whom He (the God) was, and by whom He wrought these operations.
He was formed, in the first instance, as man in the womb; and, in the second
instance,(12) the God also was in the womb, united essentially with the
human,(13) that is to say, His substance being wedded with the man.

III.--FROM THE ACTS OF THE DISPUTATION CONDUCTED BY MALCHION AGAINST PAUL
OF SAMOSATA.(1)

The compound is surely made tip of the simple elements,(2) even as in
the instance of Jesus Christ, who was made one (person), constituted by
God the Word, and a human body which is of the seed of David, and who subsists
without having any manner of division between the two, but in unity. You,
however, appear to me to decline to admit a constitution(3) after this
fashion: to the effect that there is not in this person, the Son of God
according to substance, but only the Wisdom according to participation.
For you made tiffs assertion, that the Wisdom bears dispensing, and therefore
cannot be compounded;(4) and you do not consider that the divine Wisdom
remained undiminished, even as it was before it evacuated itself;(5) and
thus in this self-evacuation, which it took upon itself in compassion (for
us), it continued undiminished and unchangeable. And this assertion you
also make, that the Wisdom dwelt in Him, just as we also dwell in houses,
the one in the other,(6) and yet not as if we formed a part of the house,
or the house a part of us.

IV.--A POINT IN THE SAME DISPUTATION.(1)

Did I not say before that you do not admit that the only-begotten Son,
who is from all eternity before every creature, was made substantially
existent(2) in the whole person of the Saviour;(3) that is to say, was
united with Him according to substance?